Community Corner

Scouts, Other Volunteers Helped Make Shelter A Second Home

Irene evacuees who sheltered at Barnegat's Brackman School last weekend were met with comfort and compassion thanks to a crew of community members who did everything from tote luggage to serve dinner

The Boy Scouts motto of “be prepared” got plenty of play in Barnegat last weekend.

And in the hours before Hurricane Irene’s arrival, the Scouts of Troop 26 were among the volunteers who helped prepare more than 100 people for a long night of weathering the storm.

The joint shelter that opened Saturday morning for Barnegat and Ocean Township residents at Brackman Middle School was a true volunteer effort, with more than a dozen troop members – youth and adults – joining Community Emergency Response Team members from Waretown to bring hot meals, comfort and compassion to those displaced by the hurricane.

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After helping set up the county-run shelter at Southern Regional High School, scouts and parents headed to Brackman, said Susan Cornell, the Troop 26 Scoutmaster, but not because they were called to help – they just showed up.

“We knew there was going to be a shelter opening,” she said, “so we went down to start helping there.”

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Boys whose families weren’t under evacuation orders themselves arrived to set up cots. Parents brought games to keep the eventual evacuees occupied.

And when people started trickling in Saturday morning, the scouts were there.

“When I first walked in, I had no idea what to do,” said Jimmy Lynch of Barnegat, one of six youths who helped out at the shelter. But he got his marching orders, and jumped into the task at hand: “Just help people, greet them, make sure they’re not feeling gloomy."

They set up cots in the gym, and darted back and forth in the rain to carry in luggage.

It looked to be a quiet night with fewer than 50 people to take care of, until, just after dark, their numbers more than doubled all at once when a busload of Atlantic City residents pulled up.

They’d been turned away twice from other shelters further south. Some had been standing for the whole bus ride. Exhausted and worrying about home, they streamed into the Brackman cafeteria and were met with smiles and helping hands – and some behind-the-scenes scrambling.

Worrying that the food donated by the school district might now not be enough, especially for the older people in the shelter, Jimmy Lynch’s mother Dee and Township Committeeman Leonard Morano hopped in a car and made the rounds to area food stores.

ShopRite immediate rounded up salad, iced tea and Ensure, said Lynch. “They were so nice,” she said. “They gave us everything we asked for.”

Then it was on to Genaurdi’s, which offered oatmeal, milk and sugar, and Wawa, which donated creamer for the endless pots of hot coffee the volunteers brewed up all night long.

Kids and adults worked side by side in the kitchen Saturday night, dishing up hot dinners, and afterward, youngsters helped serve bowls of ice cream donated by Dennis Smith of Jeffrey’s ice cream.

And while winds whipped and rain pounded Saturday night, volunteers were talking and mingling, playing cards and board games and making sure evacuees had whatever they needed, from water to an extra blanket.

“They deserve a lot of credit,” said Morano. Just having the kids’ smiling faces around lifted the mood of those who were worrying what they’d be returning to once the storm was over. “I think it helped them not to fear,” he said. “It kind of calmed them.”

The display of neighborly affection was inspiring, Morano said. “It proves that Barnegat is a great place to live.”

Or visit – even under trying circumstances. Susan Cornell said that when she and others returned Sunday to help break down cots and clean up, they got a surprise: a poster thanking everyone at the shelter for their hospitality.

“It said ‘thank you’ in big black letters,” she said. “Every one of them signed it.”

 

Who was on hand:

Robert Cornell, Tristan Buck, Susan Cornell, Grace Buck, Jillian Shiner, Dee Lynch, Jamie Lynch, Samantha Gray, Sandy Lund and Marc Thalheimer were among the scouting leaders who gave of their time over the weekend to help those at the shelter. Joining them were scouts Brent, Jimmy, Riley, Jovan, RJ, Kenny and Nick.

 

 


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